unknown attribute error when submitting multiple records in double-nested form

[cmezak]

I'm using nested_form for a situation where:

Parent (climb) ==has_one==> Join Model (route_ascent) ==polymorphic has_many==> Children (route_step)

So I have a climb object that looks like

class Climb < ActiveRecord::Base
  has_one :route_ascent
  accepts_nested_attributes_for :route_ascent
end

Here's RouteAscent

class RouteAscent < ActiveRecord::Base
  has_many :ascent_steps, :class_name => 'RouteStep', :as => :steppable
  accepts_nested_attributes_for :ascent_steps, :allow_destroy => true
end

And Here's RouteStep

class RouteStep < ActiveRecord::Base
  belongs_to :steppable, :polymorphic => true
end

In my Climb form I have

f.fields_for :route_ascent

My _route_ascent_fields partial is simply

<%= f.fields_for :ascent_steps %>
<p><%= f.link_to_add "Add A Step", :ascent_steps %></p>

And my _ascent_step_fields partial is

<div class="field">
<%= f.label :order %>
<%= f.text_field :position %><br>
<%= f.label :description %>
<%= f.text_area :description %>
<%= f.link_to_remove "Remove Step" %>
</div>

The problem I have is that whenever I submit the form with more than one object in the join model's has_many association, I get an unknown attribute error. Here's what the parameters look like that are generated by the form in such a case:

"route_ascent_attributes"=>{"ascent_steps_attributes"=>{"0"=>{"position"=>"1",
 "description"=>"this will also work",
 "_destroy"=>"false",
 "id"=>"66"}},
 "0"=>{"new_1307386880995"=>{"position"=>"2",
 "description"=>"broken!",
 "_destroy"=>"false"}},
 "id"=>"4"},

It looks like the second object is not being included correctly in the parameters, but I haven't been able to figure out why this is so.

The problem occurs whether or not the has_many association starts out with an object or not. So If it is empty, I can successfully create a single object but not two. If It already has one object, I can't add a second without getting this error.

Will continue to work on this, but I'd appreciate any insight as to what the problem might be!

[cmezak]

Commenting out lines 15-31 in nested_form.js bypasses the problem, if that's any help.

Those lines are:

    // context will be something like this for a brand new form:
    // project[tasks_attributes][new_1255929127459][assignments_attributes][new_1255929128105]
    // or for an edit form:
    // project[tasks_attributes][0][assignments_attributes][1]
    if(context) {
      var parent_names = context.match(/[a-z_]+_attributes/g) || [];
      var parent_ids   = context.match(/(new_)?[0-9]+/g) || [];

      for(i = 0; i < parent_names.length; i++) {
        if(parent_ids[i]) {
          content = content.replace(
            new RegExp('(_' + parent_names[i] + ')_.+?_', 'g'),
           '$1_' + parent_ids[i] + '_');

          content = content.replace(
            new RegExp('(\\[' + parent_names[i] + '\\])\\[.+?\\]', 'g'),
            '$1[' + parent_ids[i] + ']');
        }
      }

    }

[ryanb]

Thanks for reporting this issue. I don't have time at the moment to research this, but it will be very helpful once I get a chance.

[cmezak]

Thanks Ryan. No rush at all – you do so much for the community as it is. But let me know if I can provide any additional info or testing.

[ryanb]

Just to give you an update, the plan is to get a good test suite in place next, see issue #22 for this. Then we can duplicate problems like this and find a concrete solution and ensure nothing else breaks. If you have input on testing please comment there.

[lest]

@cmezak Could you please test with the latest nested_form version? I'd be helpful if you provided a test application reproducing this issue. Thanks!

[lest]

Closing for now. Will reopen if there is still an issue.